Closure means for child&#39;s garment



1 v. STEPHENSON 6 CLOSURE MEANS FOR cano's GARMENT Filed Oct. 21, 1947 War-me L. stephemson fla /W. w-5z,

Patented Jan. 1, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIC 2,580,969 CLOSURE MEANS FOR CHILDS GARMENT Verne L. Stephenson, Goshen, Ind. Application October 21, 1947, Serial No. 781,065

1 Claim. 1

The invention pertains to a child's garment of the playsuit type, and has particular reference to a garment having an extensible tuck between the trouser section and the waist section of the garment which may be freed upon the growth of the child to permit extension of the' garment in a vertical direction.

One object of the invention is to provide a childs garment or playsuit of the character indicated, employing a collar presenting a conventional appearance and in which the waist section is constructed so as to provide a front panel disengageably connected with adjacent arm portions of the garment so as to provide a from opening of substantial size notwithstanding the presence of a circumferential extensible tuck between the trouser and waist sections of the garment.

A further object is to provide a childs garment having a waist portion with a front opening panel disengageably secured to the arm portions by means of slide fasteners, in combination with a collar of conventional appearance but constructed to provide free end portions serving to conceal the upper ends of the slide fasteners and normally secured to the upper edge portion of the panel by means permitting convenient disconnection from the panel.

The objects of the invention thus generally set forth, together with other and ancillary advantages, are attained by the construction and arrangement shown by way of illustration in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a childs garment embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged elevational view of the upper portion of the garment with the collar turned up so as to expose the construction and arrangement employed.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view on an enlarged scale, taken on the plane of line 3-3 of Fig. 1 and showing an extensible tuck formed between the trouser and waist portions of the garment.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary front elevational view showing the upper portion of the garment with the front opening panel in open position.

Referring now to the drawings, I have shown a playsuit comprising a trouser section I and a waist section 8, the latter having arms 9 and a collar if: defining a neck opening llla. The two sections are in the present instance made separately and stitched together by a horizontal or circumferential seam l I; and the material of the waist portion is folded back upon itself to form an extensible tuck I2; the folds of which are secured together and to the upper edge of the trouser section by a circumferential row of stitching l3. It will be understood that by removing the stitching l3 and unfolding the tuck l2, the garment may be readily lengthened by an appreciable amount.

To provide an opening in the waist portion of the garment large enough to permit passage of a child's body in putting on or removing the garment, I provide a pair of slits 14 extending laterally outward from the neck opening Illa to form a front opening bib or panel I la. As shown, the slits l4 extend upwardly from points adjacent the arm pits of a child upwardly and inwardly terminating at their upper ends in laterally .spaced relation as best shown in Fig. 2.

The edges of the slits are disengageably connected by conventional slide fasteners l5, and when the slide fasteners are drawn downwardly so as to disconnect the side edges of the panel from the respective arm portions 9, the panel may be dropped downwardly as shown in Fig. 4 to provide an opening l6 of a size sufficient to accommodate the body of a child. It will be observed in this connection that a conventional center front opening extending from the center of the collar vertically downward would necessarily terminate at its lower end at the connection between the trouser and waist sections due to the presence of the extensible tuck and that the opening thus provided would be too small. By providing two diagonal slits l4 closed by the slide fasteners l5, it is possible to provide an opening it of ample size.

Termination of the upper ends of the slits Hi in laterally spaced relation at the neck opening mm is advantageous in that it avoids interference between the two slide fasteners when the latter are drawn to their uppermost positions for the purpose of closing the two slits. At the same time this arrangement permits of concealment of the slide fasteners by means of the front adjoining ends of the collar ill. For this purpose, the collar is attached to the Waist portion of the garment rearwardly of the upper ends of the slits I 4 by means of a seam l1 terminating at or adjacent the slits so as to provide flap extensions 18 (Fig. 2) which overlie the upper ends of the slits and the connecting slide fasteners when the collar is in normal turned down position (Fig. 1).

To secure the flap extensions is in position they are provided with disengageable fastening means such as snap fasteners 19, the separate parts We and 19b of which are respectively secured to the extension flaps l8 and to the upper end of the panel Ma. As shown in Fig. 1, when the extension flaps are secured by the snap fasteners to the upper end of the panel, the ends of the collar meet in substantially end-to-end relation, and in this position the extension flaps effectually conceal the ends of the slits and their fasteners. To open up the garment it is only necessary to disconnect the snap fasteners l9 and slide the fasteners l5 downwardly so as to allow the panel Ma to drop down to form the opening [6.

I claim as my invention:

In a childs garment comprising a trouser secv 1 tion, a waist section with arm portions attached thereto, said waist section havin an upper 1mm opening panel the side edges of which are defined by a pair of slits extending upwardly and inwardly from the armpits and terminating in laterally spaced relation at the upper end .oi'the waist section, means for detachably connecting the edge portions of said slits, and a collar de fining a neck opening attached to said waist section rearwardly of said slits, said collar havin flaps meeting in close relation forwardly of the neck opening and disposed in overlying relation to the upper ends of the slits, and fastening devices for disengageably securing the upper portions of the flaps to the upper edge of the front panel.

VERNE L. STEPHENSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 7fi5fi=05 Kester July 26, 1904 1 361,798 Hildreth July 17, 1923 1,606,920 Bornstein, Nov. 16, 1926 1,667,220 Rifkin Apr. 24, 1928 1,973,421 Wallace Sept. 11, 1934 2,010,349 Cooper Aug. .6, 1935 2,291,861 Astrove Aug. 4, 1942 

